Petite Suite pour le Piano

Seven Pittoresque Pieces for Pianoforte (intermediate level)

1.Grande et solennelle ouverture

2. Valse triste ( un peu ...)

3. Sous le parapluie

4. Tango-Parigot

5. Choral bwv 3,1416

6. Parade avec majorettes

7. Supplique ( pour attendrir...)

Dedication: "à Isabelle Ventoruzzo"

Duration : ca. 12:00

Originally, I wanted to write a short piano suite for beginning pianists. Sometimes, the final outcome of a project differs from the initial idea of what one was trying to achieve. This collection is more for pianists who have already acquired a bit a technique, a slightly higher level ("intermediate"), in any case, than a true beginner.

These seven short pieces are full of impressions of a child-like world. It consists of a series of events that a child could see or hear through the windows of the family living-room in a small town in the provinces of the France of the 1950s....Nostalgia, therefore... These pieces all have content and form inspired by a certain style of music. They also have a pedagogical content which is reasonably clear. In writing them, I wanted to offer not a method, but original works which are alternatives to other collections which already exist. "One more such set?", you might ask me. "Yes, one more and why not?"

This is also an hommage to the Charles Trenet of my childhood, the songwriter who wrote La folle complainte.

1.Grande et solennelle ouverture -Grand and Solemn Overture

A series of chord progressions, a bit like a funeral march for toy soldiers.

2. Valse triste ( un peu ...) - Sad Waltz (a bit...)

This is a slightly sad waltz which is slightly off balance -- a mix of popular and bourgeois styles, half piano-half musette.

3. Sous le parapluie - Under the Umbrella

We venture into the genre of “program music.” You can hear the drops falling, can’t you?

4. Tango-Parigot - Parisian Tango

This is a stylized Parisian Tango, closer to Yvette Horner than to Astor Piazzola.

5. Choral bwv 3,1416

A shameless pastiche of a Lutheran chorale in the manner of Bach. A chorale is always a sort of loop which closes like a circle, hence the reference to the letter pi.

6. Parade avec majorettes - Parade with Baton Twirlers.

This joyous piece evokes a parade, with a marching band and baton twirlers with florescent tights and short skirts. Truly authentic “folk art”.

7. Supplique ( pour attendrir...) - Humble Request (to charm)

We now come back to the type of seriousness which characterized the first piece. Even a happy child is always a bit sad...

Jean-Thierry BOISSEAU